In a New
York Timesop-ed,
Diamond complains about the politicization of the confirmation
process. He accuses Senate Republicans of being ignorant of the
connection between unemployment and federal monetary policy - his
area of expertise.

Diamond has faced fierce opposition from Senate Republicans, who
blocked his April 2010 nomination from receiving an up-and-down
vote, forcing President Barack Obama to renominate him last
September and again this January.

Diamond writes:

"We should all worry about how distorted the confirmation process
has become, and how little understanding of monetary policy there
is among some of those responsible for its Congressional
oversight. We need to preserve the independence of the Fed from
efforts to politicize monetary policy and to limit the Fed’s
ability to regulate financial firms."

He concludes that the real damage to the independence of the
Federal Reserve and the ability of the country to form a
coherent, effective economic policy free from political
interference and ideology.

On the other hand, the Cato Institute's Mark Calabria - a former
aid to Senator Richard Shelby, the main Republican opponent to
Diamond's nomination - argues that Diamond's complaint about
politicization is a red herring.
The real reason his nomination was not approved, Calabria claims,
is strictly legal: Diamond, who has worked for MIT since 1966,
does not really live in Chicago, as the Obama administration has
claimed. There can only be one governor from each Federal Reserve
district at a time.

Both Democratic and Republican presidents have seen their
nominees to the Federal Reserve blocked by Congressional
opposition in recent years.

"There may be some payback going on right now," William Poole,
the former St. Louis Fed president,
told Bloomberg Businessweek. "It's getting worse and worse
over time."

A Shelby spokesman denied that the senator is using Diamond to
get back at Democrats.